Prices are sky-high, with profits to match. But looking further ahead, the industry faces wrenching change, says an expert of energy.
"The time when we could count on cheap oil and even cheaper natural gas is clearly ending. "That was the gloomy forecast delivered in February by Dave O’Reilly, the chairman of Chevron Texaco, to hundreds of oilmen gathered for a conference in Houston. The following month, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez gleefully echoed the sentiment: "The world should forget about cheap oil."
The surge in oil prices, from ＄10 a barrel in 1998 to above ＄50 in early 2005,has prompted talk of a new era of sustained higher prices. But whenever a "new era" in oil is hailed, scepticism is in order. After all, this is essentially a cyclical business in which prices habitually yo-yo. Even so, an unusually loud chorus is now joining Messrs O’Reilly and Chavez, pointing to intriguing evidence of a new "price floor" of ＄30 or perhaps even ＄40. Confusingly, though, there are also signs that high oil prices may be caused by a speculative bubble that could burst quite suddenly. To see which camp is right, two questions need answering: why did the oil price soar And what could keep it high
To make matters more complicated, there is in fact no such thing as a single "oil price": rather, there are dozens of varieties of crude trading at different prices. When newspapers write about oil prices, they usually mean one of two reference crudes: Brent from the North Sea, or West Texas Intermediate (WTI) . But when ministers from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) discuss prices, they usually refer to a basket of heavier cartel crudes, which trade at a discount to WTI and Brent. All oil prices mentioned in this survey are per barrel of WTI
The recent volatility in prices is only one of several challenges facing the oil industry. Although at first sight Big Oil seems to be in rude health, posting record profits, this survey will argue that the western oil majors will have their work cut out to cope with the rise of resource nationalism, which threatens to choke off access to new oil reserves. This is essential to replace their existing reserves, which are rapidly declining. They will also have to respond to efforts by governments to deal with oil’s serious environmental and geopolitical side-effects. Together, these challenges could yet wipe out the oil majors.
Dave O’Reilly and Hugo Chavez be have that______.

A:prices of oil and natural gas are very high B:prices of oil and natural gas will not go down C:oil and natural gas will keep sustained high prices D:the world has forgotten about cheap oil

Text 1
Prices are sky high, with profits to match. But looking further ahead, the industry faces wrenching change, says an expert of energy.
"The time when we could count on cheap oil and even cheaper natural gas is clearly ending. That was the gloomy forecast delivered in February by Dave O’Reilly, the chairman of Chevron Texaco, to hundreds of oilmen gathered for a conference in Houston. The following month, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez gleefully echoed the sentiment: "The world should forget about cheap oil."
The surge in oil prices, from ＄10 a barrel in 1998 to above ＄ 50 in early 2005, has prompted talk of a new era of sustained higher prices. But whenever a "new era" in oil is hailed, scepticism is in order. After all, this is essentially a cyclical business in which prices habitually yo-yo. Even so, an unusually loud chorus is now joining Messrs O’Reilly and Chavez, pointing to intriguing evidence of a new "price floor" of ＄ 30 or perhaps even ＄ 40. Confusingly, though, there are also signs that high oil prices may be caused by a speculative bubble that could burst quite suddenly. To see which camp is right, two questions need answering: why did the oil price soar And what could keep it high
To make matters more complicated, there is in fact no such thing as a single "oil price": rather, there are dozens of varieties of crude trading at different prices. When newspapers write about oil prices, they usually mean one of two reference crudes: Brent from the North Sea, or West Texas Intermediate (WTI). But when ministers from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) discuss prices, they usually refer to a basket of heavier cartel crudes, which trade at a discount to WTI and Brent. All oil prices mentioned in this survey are per barrel of WTI.
The recent volatility in prices is only one of several challenges facing the oil industry. Although at first sight Big Oil seems to be in rude health, posting record profits, this survey will argue that the western oil majors will have their work cut out to cope with the rise of resource nationalism, which threatens to choke off access to new oil reserves. This is essential to replace their existing reserves, which are rapidly declining. They will also have to respond to efforts by governments to deal with oil’s serious environmental and geopolitical side-effects. Together, these challenges could yet wipe out the oil majors.

Dave O'Reilly and Hugo Chavez. believe that（）

A:prices of oil and natural gas are very high. B:prices of oil and natural gas will not go down. C:oil and natural gas will keep sustained high prices. D:the world has forgotten about cheap oil.

High oil prices have not yet produced an economic shock among consuming countries, but further rises, especially sharp (1) , would undoubtedly hurt the world economy, and (2) would inevitably harm producers, too. Beyond this obvious point, (3) , higher prices could even do harm to both oil firms and producers.
Big oil firms (4) rolling in money today, but that disguises the fact that their longer-term prospects are (5) . Behind the reserves-accounting scandal at Royal Dutch/ Shell (6) a problem bedevilling all of the majors: replacing their dwindling reserves. (7) existing fields in Alaska and the North Sea are rapidly declining, OPEC countries and Russia are (8) them out. (9) they are to survive in the long term, the big oil firms must embrace other sources of energy (10) oil.
(11) it is to believe, higher oil prices could be bad news for producing countries (12) . Political leaders in Russia, Venezuela and other oil-rich countries are bending laws to crack (13) on foreign firms and to strengthen their grip on oil (14) through state-run firms. This may be convenient for the political leaders themselves. Alas, it is (15) to do much for their countrymen. For years corruption and inefficiency (16) the typical results of government control of oil resources.
Producing countries should (17) embrace open markets. (18) one thing, shutting out foreign investment will only hurt their own oil output by (19) the sharpest managers and latest technologies. For another, economic liberalisation (including reform of bloated welfare states) would help OPEC countries (20) their economies--as the NAFTA trade deal has done for oil-rich Mexico--and so prepare them for the day when the black gold starts running out.

3（）

A:ones B:shock C:prices D:countries

Section Ⅰ Use of English Directions: Read the following text, Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. High oil prices have not yet produced an economic shock among consuming countries, but further rises, especially sharp (1) , would undoubtedly hurt the world economy, and (2) would inevitably harm producers, too. Beyond this obvious point, (3) , higher prices could even do harm to both oil firms and producers. Big oil firms (4) rolling in money today, but that disguises the fact that their longer-term prospects are (5) . Behind the reserves-accounting scandal at Royal Dutch/ Shell (6) a problem bedevilling all of the majors: replacing their dwindling reserves. (7) existing fields in Alaska and the North Sea are rapidly declining, OPEC countries and Russia are (8) them out. (9) they are to survive in the long term, the big oil firms must embrace other sources of energy (10) oil. (11) it is to believe, higher oil prices could be bad news for producing countries (12) . Political leaders in Russia, Venezuela and other oil-rich countries are bending laws to crack (13) on foreign firms and to strengthen their grip on oil (14) through state-run firms. This may be convenient for the political leaders themselves. Alas, it is (15) to do much for their countrymen. For years corruption and inefficiency (16) the typical results of government control of oil resources. Producing countries should (17) embrace open markets. (18) one thing, shutting out foreign investment will only hurt their own oil output by (19) the sharpest managers and latest technologies. For another, economic liberalisation (including reform of bloated welfare states) would help OPEC countries (20) their economies--as the NAFTA trade deal has done for oil-rich Mexico--and so prepare them for the day when the black gold starts running out.

Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1.3（）

A:ones B:shock C:prices D:countries

It is clear that the main reason for the rise in food prices is that______

A:people are buying less food B:the government is providing less financial support for agriculture C:domestic food production has decreased D:imported food is driving prices higher

Text 1

Dave O’Reilly and Hugo Chavez be have that______.

A:prices of oil and natural gas are very high B:prices of oil and natural gas will not go down C:oil and natural gas will keep sustained high prices D:the world has forgotten about cheap oil

Most of the illusions that defined the tate global economic boom—the notion that global growth had moved to a non-stop higher plane and housing prices from Miami to Mumbai would rise indefinitely—are now indeed exhausted. Yet one idea still has the power to capture imaginations and markets: it is that commodities like oil, copper, grains and gold are all destined to rise over time. Lots of smart people believe that last year’s increase in commodities prices represented a pause in a long-term bull market.
It’s view rooted in powerful and real trends, like the growth of India, the decline in global reserves, fears over resource nationalization and long-term lack of investment in energy and agriculture, which limits supply.
At any point in time, there are always new economic powers emerging on the global scene, yet product prices have continued to fall. The 1980s and 1990s were a relatively strong period for the global economy, and India was growing at an average pace of 7 percent. But prices for most commodities did not follow, oil, for example, never broke through the upper limit of $40 a barrel.
The reason oil prices did not spike higher is simple: demand for any product is price-elastic, which means that once the price goes too high, consumers stop buying it or make heroic efforts to find a substitute.
There is good reason to believe that the world just passed a similar turning point. The last boom in the oil prices collapsed in 1979, when total spending on oil exceeded 7 percent of global GDP. Last year, spending on oil hit a similar share of global GDP, and the price has since fallen by more than two thirds.
Yet markets are still betting that the price of oil is poised to spike again. Some analysts predict $90 a barrel by 2012. It’s worth noting that until as recently as 2005, the markets acted on the exact opposite assumption. For years, sport prices ran much higher than futures prices, because most investors assumed prices would follow the historic trend line: down. Today investors are sill reacting to any sign of health in the global economy by pouring money back into commodities, producing the unstable upward price swing we’ve seen in recent weeks.
What is relation between the economy and the product prices

A:Product prices will fall when the economy gets strong. B:Product prices will go the same way with the economic trend. C:Product prices are the basis of the economy. D:New economic powers determine the product prices.

Most of the illusions that defined the tate global economic boom—the notion that global growth had moved to a non-stop higher plane and housing prices from Miami to Mumbai would rise indefinitely—are now indeed exhausted. Yet one idea still has the power to capture imaginations and markets: it is that commodities like oil, copper, grains and gold are all destined to rise over time. Lots of smart people believe that last year’s increase in commodities prices represented a pause in a long-term bull market.
It’s view rooted in powerful and real trends, like the growth of India, the decline in global reserves, fears over resource nationalization and long-term lack of investment in energy and agriculture, which limits supply.
At any point in time, there are always new economic powers emerging on the global scene, yet product prices have continued to fall. The 1980s and 1990s were a relatively strong period for the global economy, and India was growing at an average pace of 7 percent. But prices for most commodities did not follow, oil, for example, never broke through the upper limit of $40 a barrel.
The reason oil prices did not spike higher is simple: demand for any product is price-elastic, which means that once the price goes too high, consumers stop buying it or make heroic efforts to find a substitute.
There is good reason to believe that the world just passed a similar turning point. The last boom in the oil prices collapsed in 1979, when total spending on oil exceeded 7 percent of global GDP. Last year, spending on oil hit a similar share of global GDP, and the price has since fallen by more than two thirds.
Yet markets are still betting that the price of oil is poised to spike again. Some analysts predict $90 a barrel by 2012. It’s worth noting that until as recently as 2005, the markets acted on the exact opposite assumption. For years, sport prices ran much higher than futures prices, because most investors assumed prices would follow the historic trend line: down. Today investors are sill reacting to any sign of health in the global economy by pouring money back into commodities, producing the unstable upward price swing we’ve seen in recent weeks.
What is the author’s opinion towards oil prices

A:He thinks it possible to predict the oil prices precisely. B:He hopes oil prices go up rapidly. C:He believes that to some extent, oil prices can reflect the economic condition. D:He makes no comment on oil prices.